Artist Bhajju Shyam is happy to be among the list of Padma Shri awardees announced on the Republic Day. Bhajju’s paintings on large imperial size sheets of paper/canvas celebrate the flora and fauna and the synergy of co-existence. He has kept indigenous Gond art alive by retelling his stories and reinventing his arsenal of elements and juxtaposing multiple imageries.
Widely travelled, the 42-year-old is more than just a Gond artist. He is also the illustrator and author of the famous London Jungle Book (Tara Books) published in five languages for children. The hard working humble artist is known for quirky, upbeat, eco-conscious compositions that breathe tales of vitality and vigour. After taking up odd jobs as a security guard and getting fired for falling asleep on duty, he was called by an uncle who sold paintings to ‘foreigners’. This uncle was the late Jangarh Singh Shyam.
“I used to help my uncle,” says Bhajju. “I would fill in the colours and patterns after he did the main drawings. Then when he saw my love for doing the work he encouraged me to do works. During an exhibition in Delhi, he sold five of my paintings for ₹ 1,200.”
After that he was invited to Paris in 1998 for a tribal art exhibition at the Musee des Arts Decoratifs, and in 2001 curator Rajeev Sethi sent him to paint a mural on the walls of a restaurant in London. “And the experiences swam like a story in my head, ” he recalls.
Tara Publishing has been the frontrunner for Bhajju’s books. In fact, at their cultural space in Chennai called Book Building, there is a fine mural of a tamarind tree with exotic birds done by Bhajju. But that’s not all – Bhajju’s gallery Ojas Art in Delhi with collector and gallery person Anubhav Nath has been mounting his solo shows and is now taking his works to Hong Kong.
Flying through cities
“Everything for me is a journey,” maintains Bhajju. “When I travel I feel I’m flying through cities and roads and places and carrying my stories within me. Then the trees and tales come alive and that is how I started creating.”
Bhajju reminisces, “On my first visit to London, I felt the stairs were moving on their own, collecting people and taking them deeper into the underground. I found it strange that there were more people underground than on the streets. The subway trains were even more wonderful. It was like snuggling your way through the earth. I came back from London and suddenly I became the storyteller, I had so many things to say. ”
When he was in the aircraft he felt everything was upside down. “So in my story I put the trees upside down in the sky, and the clouds below, because flying turned my world upside-down; I also turned the Number 30 bus into a dog because like a dog it was a faithful and loyal friend to me. In Gond belief, there is a world under this one and I discovered such a world in London as well. We say the world below is ruled by the earthworm. Snakes signify earth in Gond painting so I used snakes to represent the London Tube.”
Since 2004, Bhajju has illustrated, co-edited and contributed to eight books. Furthermore, he has won several awards including the State award for Best Indigenous Artist in Madhya Pradesh.
The urban jungle
The sensibility or fullness of being alive to the world in his bestseller The London Jungle Book , unravels like a stream of observations: “London was a dream sequence for me… People change when they enter a pub… I painted an English pub in the form of a sacred Mahua tree. We Gonds make alcohol from its flowers. It is a provider for us, like the restaurants and pubs for English people. In Gond myths, the Mahua tree was the first tree to be created when the word began, so it will always be there. And it is the tree that loosens our tongue and sets us free during celebrations and festivals, like pubs do for the English.”
Bhajju recalls how the airport got stuck in his mind as a huge bird of prey. “An eagle that swallows humans who line up to be let inside like insects outside a termite hill. The airport is also a place of documents, stamps and seals. So I have put my bird of prey inside a stamp, like the ones on my passport. I mean – you can fly if the eagle gives you permission; my thoughts (are) like birds that are carrying me higher and tugging me in all sorts of new directions. ”
His books are indigenous works of art in their own right, handcrafted and surreal. In his book, The Night Life of Trees , each of the 20 paintings in the book were an original print made by a painstaking process — to put it in perspective, making 5000 copies of the book would take three months. The Nightlife of Trees is a striking hand-bound and screen-printed ode to the legends, folklore and spirituality of the forest and the cover spans surreal splendour.
Love and choice
His third famous book is The Flight of the Mermaid retold by Sirish Rao and Gita Wolf and illustrated by Bhajju. It is a combination of story and tribal art. The narrative retains an old world charm.
“The theme is of love and choice,” says Bhajju. “Sometimes even choosing can hurt, as it happens in the case of the mermaid. But here is a girl, who, dares to dream and takes risks, for that is the only way to achieve what she wants.”
He tried to capture the essence of the story with the tradition of Gond tribal art. “Most of the illustrations I do are inspired by the legends of my tribes. And the filling in of the picture, starting from the edges and going in to the centre is distinctive of the work. So in many ways I’m telling stories through Gond imagery and metaphors. ”
Bhajju’s hand is neat— the dots and lithe lines in the tribal paintings give life to the story he creates. His translucent trees full of vigour are like penetrating preachers: “We are keeping a memory alive — of things that are precious to us, like bonding, ceremonies and communication . Our lives have changed because now we live in houses with toilets, ” chuckles Bhajju.
